After 18 hours of new research and testing, we found that the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim is still the best portable hard drive for most people. It’s reliable, it’s one of the lightest, thinnest hard drives we tested, and it was faster than the competition in our backup and file-transfer tests.
Don Ingber and Charles Reilly of the Wyss Institute used data at the atomic level to visualize the simulation of sperm fertilizing an egg. The researchers used a Star Wars theme.
To see if entertainment could offer a solution to this challenge, Ingber teamed up with Charles Reilly, Ph.D., a molecular biophysicist, professional animator, and Staff Scientist at the Wyss Institute who previously worked at movie director Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post film studio, to create a film that would capture viewers’ imaginations by telling the story of a biological process that was accurate down to the atomic level.
Ingber notes a concern that non-scientists have grown skeptical of science. I’m not sure entertainment in this form is the way to fix that, but at least it was fun to watch. [via Co.Design]
Tags: fertilization, Star Wars
Genesungswünsche aus München. Ich soll jetzt Meister werden. Dankeschön!
Three days from now you may have preordered the iPhone X. Deliveries start ten days from now. And I am really curious about it. It's the first major redesign of the original iPhone concept. It will be a huge upgrade from an iPhone but not necessarily from an iPhone Plus.
What you see above is the top of the line for iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 7 Plus. They come with 256 (or 128 GB) of storage. Either way, more than you will probably fill up. And since they are in scale you can see that the 5.5" screen of the Plus is actually larger than the 5.8" screen of the X. They all have dual cameras and the X is of course much smaller. But when you are watching video, it will be letter boxed on the X. Since the screen is narrower in portrait mode, text will be smaller or lines will run shorter. The Plus models look kind of old fashioned when everybody else goes for small bezels. But I like this design.
While the X gets all the attention, as a customer you will be getting a very powerful iPhone, whether you are spending 1319 or 879 €. The real hot deal is a 128 GB iPhone 6S. No dual camera (neither on the 6S Plus). It's still a current model, it still has a 3.5 mm headphones jack, and it is another 250 cheaper than the 7 Plus with the same storage capacity. You can get two of those for a single X with money to spend on cases.
I started this blog in 2011, over 6 years ago! Time has passed since then, and in the interest of keeping my ancient blog posts truthful, I’ve spent some time adding update notes to many of them - 32 of them, to be exact. I’ve also updated and fixed links where I could, pointing old bit.ly links to their raw targets, removing links to things that have gone offline, and updating references where appropriate. Where I could, I’ve updated statements about relative time, like “last year” and updated them to use absolute numbers to make posts clearer.
After a short stint blogging on Medium, I’m happy to come back to this site: it’s less gamified, and probably an inferior vehicle for ‘viral content’, but it’s mine and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The posts with update headers are now currently noted in the archive if you’d like to check them out. I’ll remove the updated flags in a month or two.
As always, I welcome input and corrections: my contact information is on the /about/ page.
This evening there was another vigil for victims of road violence, also marking the first anniversary of the founding of Friends and Families for Safe Streets, an advocacy and support group.
As per usual, the gathering was at the Peace Garden in Nathan Phillips Square. Here, people are setting up 53 silhouettes representing road victims thus far in 2017 (sadly this number was one too few at this point).
David Stark, one of the founding members of FFSS, was one of the first speakers. Heartbreaking to see him hugging a silhouette. His wife Erica was killed by a car while walking on the sidewalk.
There was a succession of speakers. I’m sorry that I didn’t catch the names.
Cycle Toronto providing a little respite from some drizzle.
Luke Simcoe also spoke. He was the author of a series of articles about Toronto’s deadly streets.
Kasia Samson-Briegmann, Tom Samson‘s widow, also spoke about several things, such as the local media now avoiding the term “accident” and replacing it with “collision”, as well as the prospects for vulnerable road user legislation.
Finally, anyone who was affected by road violence was invited to speak.
Remembering Debbie Graves, struck and killed October 4.
Gary Sim‘s daughter.
Xavier Morgan‘s grandparents. His grandfather said that Toronto traffic “just needs to slow down”.
A record turnout, despite the threat of rain.
A group of powerful women all advocating for safer streets.
Left to right, Counsellor McMahon, MPP Eleanor McMahon (founder of Share the Road Coalition), Counsellor Wong-Tam, Nancy Lea Smith (director of TCAT) (I’m sorry but I didn’t know the fifth person).
Cycle Toronto folks packing up the silhouettes. I was told that there was a frantic painting session last night. Also I met the artist who did all the cutouts with a jigsaw, but I regret I didn’t get her name. (Update: she is Gabrielle Thompson. She works with Pat Brown at McLeish Orlando.)
After the gathering, there was a wake at a nearby bar. Mayor Tory was good enough to show up.
I was lucky enough to talk to both him and Counsellor McMahon about my impressions of PWIC last week.
Slowly, the city and province seem to be moving in the right direction. Better infrastructure for both pedestrians and cyclists, as well as VRU legislation, are both important steps if we are going to be serious about Vision Zero.
Passing by the Gord Downie sing a long afterwards.
and a peaceful ride home along Bloor.
Regrettably, many of the same people will be out tomorrow night for a memorial ride. Signing off for now.
Update: CBC coverage.
Scot thinks Jeff Speck would approve (see below). From the Toronto Star:
A new type of vehicle is about to roll out on Toronto’s streets.
UPS announced Monday the U.S.-based shipping giant is a launching a pilot project of using cargo bikes for package deliveries. …
Because of its size the bike won’t be allowed to operate in bike lanes …
Nithya Vijayakumar, a senior adviser on transportation and urban solutions at the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank, recently authored a report advocating for the increased use of cargo bikes in Toronto.
It determined that 16.4 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the city come from vans, light-duty trucks, and SUVs.
Stephen Downes,
YouTube,
Oct 27, 2017
I created a nice new version of my 'Groups vs Networks' diagram and created a video wherein I create the diagram step by step and explain what I mean at each step, and therefore, by the diagram as a whole. After the fact I realize that there is a major element missing from the diagram (both individual and new): the idea that the core value in groups is mass while the idea that the core value in networks is structure or organization. The diagram is located here.
[Link] [Comment]
Today’s my 59th birthday. I can see 60 on the horizon. If my most recent milestones birthdays are any guide, the trepidation that comes now will turns to mellowness when I get there. So I’m going to write about age now, while I’m still trepidating. In my head, I am still about 24. I still … Continued
The post The whines, er, wisdom of a 59-year-old appeared first on without bullshit.
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from  Colossal.
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Taking inspiration from a wide variety of electronic brands, designer Vinicius Araújo designed this alphabet of Helvetica letterforms, each modeled after a brand’s namesake product. The letter “N” for Nintendo becomes a retro-styled NES gaming system while the “B” for Beats grabs the aesthetic of comfy headphones. Araújo went even further with several of the letters to create a few brief animations. You can see the entire series titled 36days Electronics on Behance.
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from  Brexit | The Guardian.
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Brexit and policies such as the deep spending cuts to working-age benefits have put senior civil servants in a hard place
One day there’ll be a Brexit reckoning, which is why civil servants are being so careful to record and annotate their advice to ministers, enabling them to tell future inquirers that it wasn’t them, guv – it was Liam Fox, David Davis, Michael Gove and the other Brexit ultras.
Related: UK will be ready if Brexit talks with EU fail, says David Davis
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from  SPIEGEL ONLINE - Schlagzeilen.
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"Ich habe mich gefragt, ob Sie mir freundlicherweise die Namen der Professoren an Ihrem Institut mitteilen könnten, die sich mit europäischen Beziehungen beschäftigen, insbesondere in Bezug auf den Brexit", so lautet die Einleitung eines Briefes, den Politiker Chris Heaton-Harris Anfang Oktober an britische Universitäten verschickt hat und der nun veröffentlicht wurde. Akademiker reagierten empört, wie der "Guardian" berichtet.
Heaton-Harris verlangte zudem Auskunft über die Brexit-Lehrpläne und das verfügbare Online-Lehrmaterial. Der Konservative sitzt im britischen Parlament und ist entschiedener Brexit-Befürworter. Seine Anfrage ist ungewöhnlich. Universitäten genießen normalerweise akademische Freiheit.
Professor David Green von der University of Worcester kritisierte: "Dieser Brief gibt vor, harmlos zu sein, aber in Wirklichkeit ist er so gefährlich." Green warnte vor Zensur und einer Gedankenpolizei. Er kündigte an, auf den Brief zu antworten. Die verlangten Informationen will er allerdings nicht preisgeben.
Auch von Brexit-Befürwortern kommt Kritik
Lee Jones von der Queen Mary University hatte sich vor dem Referendum klar für einen Brexit ausgesprochen, dennoch findet er die Forderung des Politikers problematisch. "Es ist wirklich beunruhigend, wenn ein Mitglied des Parlaments glaubt, es sei sein Auftrag, seine Nase in die Lehre an Universitäten zu stecken", so Jones. "Universitäten sind autonom und Politiker haben kein Recht, Akademiker einzuschüchtern, indem sie ihre Kurse unter die Lupe nehmen." Er habe zwar viele Kollegen, die sich gegen einen Brexit ausgesprochen haben. "Aber ich bin überzeugt, was sie lehren, ist keine Propaganda", so der Wissenschaftler.
Heaton-Harris wollte sich zu den Vorwürfen nicht äußern. Auf Twitter schrieb er jedoch: "Um eines ganz deutlich zu machen, ich glaube an die Redefreiheit an unseren Universitäten und dran, eine offene und lebhafte Debatte über den Brexit zu führen." Warum der Politiker die Informationen verlangte, ist unklar.
Internet platforms facing a severe set of problems at the intersection of product and policy. Twitter has trolling and moderation problems. Facebook and Google have fake news and malicious ad targeting problems. Cloudflare has free speech problems. These problems are a big problem.
For all the positive abundances brought about by the internet, there are negative abundances: Responsibility for more people than any company or government has ever been responsible for. More values and customers to satisfy than anyone has ever had to satisfy. More data to secure. A towering mountain of responsibility.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince on terminating support for The Daily Stormer:
"This was my decision. Our terms of service reserve the right for us to terminate users of our network at our sole discretion. My rationale for making this decision was simple: the people behind the Daily Stormer are assholes and I’d had enough.
"Let me be clear: this was an arbitrary decision. It was different than what I’d talked talked with our senior team about yesterday. I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet. I called our legal team and told them what we were going to do. I called our Trust & Safety team and had them stop the service. It was a decision I could make because I’m the CEO of a major Internet infrastructure company.
"Having made that decision we now need to talk about why it is so dangerous. I’ll be posting something on our blog later today. Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet. No one should have that power."
All this responsibility is peaking at a time when values seem to be diverging and trust is eroding, when a handful of companies are having trouble governing themselves and and governments unclear about how to regulate them.
Meanwhile, there’s a 12-digit-market-cap world-spanning system that, within a month, will have gone in four different directions, from a shared history. From a towering mountain to a no less formidable and maybe even more resilient mountain range.
It never fails to boggle my mind that Bitcoin forked. And that’s it’s forking again next month. Ethereum also forked, and the networks that haven’t yet emerged as important enough to merit a fork will as well. In fact I suspect that it’s the biggest achievement a protocol could earn: A group of people going another way because the protocol is important and valuable enough to try something else with.
Bitcoin and others have forked because their participants wished, or rather voted, for different values. Taking a shared history and going separate ways is something that has never been done in private or public organizations like this. Go ahead, try and think of one at even a fraction of Bitcoin’s scale.
(Update: Larry Sukernik makes the excellent point that religions fork. It's not lost on me that blockchain, particularly Bitcoin, often behaves figuratively and literally like a religion.)
Beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, how we get from mountains to mountain ranges, and whether the world is better off for it, is beyond my ken. But forking as a concept is well within my ken, and if people are smart and willing enough to type "aitch tee tee pee" into a browser in order to access remote files, they're probably smart enough to adopt a paradigm that could make technology a lot more responsive to their values.
This blog’s birthday is October 22, 2001. It’s now old enough to drive in a world that may be making driving obsolete. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that.
The post McGee’s Musings in now old enough to drive appeared first on McGee's Musings.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is certainly never at a loss for words when it comes to Apple topics (or many things), and the 2017 line of iPhones is no exception.
Wozniak told CNBC that he wasn’t planning to upgrade to a new iPhone at launch.
“I’d rather wait and watch that one […] For some reason, the iPhone X is going to be the first iPhone I didn’t — on day one — upgrade to. But my wife will, so I’ll be close enough to see it.”
Wozniak also told CNBC he was skeptical the Face ID feature would work well.
Instead, Wozniak is currently toting an iPhone 8, though he stated it was only an iterative update (an opinion our reviewer echoed).
“I’m happy with my iPhone 8 — which is the same as the iPhone 7, which is the same as the iPhone 6, to me,” he said.
Perhaps his recommendation — albeit less than enthusiastic — will cause some Apple fans to ditch the line-ups that are sure to form for the iPhone X, which is expected to face stock shortages by various analysts and even Rogers CEO Joe Natale, who further stated that iPhone 8 sales were “anemic.”
Source: CNBC
The post Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he’s not upgrading to iPhone X, would rather ‘wait and watch’ appeared first on MobileSyrup.
Apple has acquired the New Zealand-based company PowerbyProxi, which designs wireless power products. Specific terms of the deal such as the purchase amount were not disclosed.
The Cupertino, California-based tech giant was initially slow to adopt wireless charging technology, with rival companies like Samsung offering the feature in their phones for several years.
However, Apple joined the Wireless Power Consortium in February 2017, which develops the Qi wireless charging standard. Following that, Apple finally confirmed in September that the iPhone 8 and iPhone X smartphones would support Qi wireless charging functionality.
The company has since also revealed the AirPower charging mat, which allows for simultaneous charging of an iPhone 8 or iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 and wireless charging case for the AirPod headphones. The AirPower mat is slated for release sometime in 2018.
Apple may be interested in PowerbyProxi’s product lineup due to their capabilities, according to Jake Saunders, Asia Pacific vice president of ABI Research. Saunders told Reuters that some of the New Zealand firm’s tech supports power transfers of up to 150 watts through any non-metallic material for wirelessly charging industrial machinery and medical equipment.
Tech such as this could allow Apple to iterate on its AirPower tech to offer pads with the power to charge much larger products, such as laptops, Saunders said.
Source: Reuters
The post Apple acquires New Zealand wireless charging company PowerbyProxi appeared first on MobileSyrup.
Instagram has started rolling out a new feature that allows users to have friends join in on live video streams.
When going live, simply tap the new double smiley icon on the bottom right and tap ‘Add’ to invite any user who is currently watching. Once they accept, the screen split will into two and your guest will appear beneath you.
The original live video host can remove and replace guests at any time or guests can choose to to leave on their own. Joint live videos can be shared to stories or discarded as with any single-user live video.
Other users will know when two people are going live together based two circles stacked together in the stories bar.
Instagram parent company Facebook previously rolled out shared Live video streaming functionality in May.
The new update is part of Instagram version 20, which is now available on iOS and Android devices.
Source: Instagram
The post Instagram now lets you ‘Go Live’ with a friend appeared first on MobileSyrup.
Passengers on the Montreal Metro will soon be able to answer phone calls, send text messages and surf the web while taking the train at all stations.
According to Radio-Canada, 37 of the 68 Montreal Transport Corporation (STM) stations are now equipped with cellular connectivity, thanks to approximately $50 million CAD worth of infrastructure spending on the parts of Rogers, Telus, Bell and Videotron.
Work on the project began in 2014, as a result of Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre’s campaign promise to ensure internet access in all STM stations. It’s estimated that the project won’t be completed until 2020.
Radio-Canada reports that the delays are a result of multiple issues, including the fact that workers only have three hours to work each night, and the fact that the city is aiming for complete coverage in stations, railcars and tunnels.
In contrast, the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) T-Connect Wi-Fi service — which was completed in September 2017 — is only available in TTC stations.
Coderre also campaigned on a promise to equip city buses with Wi-Fi. However, as of right now, only one of the 219 bus lines — the 747 bus to Montreal’s international airport — provides passengers with Wi-Fi service.
Still, Radio-Canada reports that STM believes “it is possible that 1,800 buses will be equipped with Wi-Fi within four years.”
The Montreal Metro is Canada’s busiest rapid transit system, and is also the third-busiest system in North America.
Source: Radio-Canada
Image courtesy of Flickr user Eddie Hales.
Update 24/10/2017: This story was sourced from a French-language Radio-Canada article, and the author of this MobileSyrup story mistranslated and erroneously wrote that the Montreal Metro is getting a Wi-Fi infrastructure upgrade. That is inaccurate, as the Montreal Metro is getting a cellular infrastructure upgrade.
The post 37 out of 68 Montreal Metro stations are now cellular equipped [Update] appeared first on MobileSyrup.
With a little less than a week to go until Apple’s ultra high-end iPhone X is set to be available for pre-order, reports continue to corroborate earlier rumours that the Cupertino, California tech giant won’t be able to meet the rampant demand for the smartphone.
In a recent video interview with BuzzFeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook was surprisingly candid about iPhone X shortages, saying “we’ll see what happens,” when asked about the possibility.
“We’ll be working as hard as possible, to make as many as possible,” continued Cook.
The iPhone X is set to be available for pre-order on October 27th with the device hitting store shelves on November 3rd in 57 different regions.
Japanese media publication Nikkei reported earlier this week that Apple is likely only capable of manufacturing 20 million iPhone X units, a number amounting to half of what the company originally planned to manufacture this year. The publication says that defects related to the bonding process with the iPhone X’s display module were resolved in July, and that the new issues stem from assembling the company’s facial authentication technology.
Making matters worse, it’s expected that only 2 to 3 million iPhone Xs will ship prior to the phones November 3rd launch, according to KGI Securities often reliable Ming-Chi Kuo.
What does this mean for the average consumer? Getting your hands on the iPhone X is going to be a difficult task come November 3rd. We’ve put together a handy guide that we plan to update in the coming days, giving users quick tips on how to actually be able to pre-order the smartphone.
Source: BuzzFeed, Nikkei Via: Business Insider
The post Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses iPhone X stock shortage: ‘We’ll see what happens’ appeared first on MobileSyrup.
The meal replacement substance beloved by techies, Soylent, has been banned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Rob Rhinehart, CEO and founder of Soylent producer Rosa Foods, wrote in a post on the Soylent website that the CFIA informed the company in early October that Soylent does not meet select requirements to qualify as a meal replacement — meaning the company is unable to ship to Canada until the matter is resolved.
“Although we feel strongly that these requirements do not reflect the current understanding of human nutritional needs, we respect the CFIA’s regulations and will fully comply with any regulatory action they deem appropriate,” wrote Rhinehart.
The light-brown liquid consumable purports to meet all nutritional requirements for an average adult, and is composed of ingredients including whey isolate and oat powder.
Soylent first began shipping to Canada in June 2015, making it the first international destination the company ventured to outside of the United States.
Soylent was developed by Rob Rhinehart, a mid-20s software developer who wanted to streamline the process of buying, preparing and eating food. “Food is the fossil fuel of human energy,” he stated in a manifesto-like blog post titled ‘How I Stopped Eating Food.’
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing towards the future of food, however, particularly in the Canadian market. Last October, Health Canada issued a warning that advised Canadian consumers against eating Soylent’s food bars, following reports that customers were getting sick.
He also noted that the company is working Health Canada and the CFIA to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible,” but that it has no firm timeline yet.
In a FAQ on the ban, the company assures subscribers they will not be charged while the issue is ongoing.
The post Soylent is now banned in Canada for failing to qualify as a meal replacement appeared first on MobileSyrup.
Mr. Spock beams on to the cover of BYTE, July 1984. The convergence of computers and video? Fascinating.
Google’s AI-powered Lens object identification feature is arriving on 2016 Pixel devices as a preview.
Redditor ‘LaceratedCantaloupe’ first noticed the arrival of the feature, providing a screenshot that shows the feature is in preview.
The user stated that Lens arrived without an update, making it one of Google’s server-side updates. However, not all Pixel and Pixel XL owners are seeing the feature yet.
For those who are seeing the update, Lens takes its spot in the Photos app, where it replaces the ‘Info’ icon underneath the image being displayed.
The feature analyzes a user’s picture to provide information and useful links.
With a picture of the Eiffel Tower, for instance, Lens should provide websites with information about the landmark. Similarly, taking a picture of a poster provides users with the written URLs and anything else Google Lens can glean from the poster’s text — as long as it’s decipherable.
Android Police, which was the first publication to report on the arrival of the feature, also notes that Googlers on Twitter are reporting the feature will arrive in Google Assistant “in a few weeks.”
In our review, MobileSyrup‘s Patrick O’Rourke and I were impressed with Lens’ ability to capture information on the new Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL devices.
Source: Reddit Via: Android Police
The post Google Lens is making its way to the original Pixel and Pixel XL appeared first on MobileSyrup.
